Myopia Control

What Causes Myopia?

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a refractive vision error in which you can clearly see close objects, but your distance vision is blurry.

Myopia develops when the eyeball is too long, the cornea or lens don’t focus light properly, or any combination of these factors.  

Why is Myopia Control Necessary?

Myopia progressively worsens as your child’s eyes grow and become longer. In simple or non-pathologic myopia, vision typically worsens through childhood and adolescent growth spurts, then stabilizes in young adulthood.

Moderate to high myopia, called degenerative or pathologic myopia, progresses at a faster pace. It also increases your child’s risk of developing eye problems that lead to vision loss, such as retinal detachment, glaucoma, and cataracts.

How is Myopia Controlled?

Your doctor at Bronx Eye Associates prescribes eyeglasses or contact lenses to correct nearsightedness. However, slowing down or preventing myopia progression requires different treatment.

These are a few options for myopia control:

• Atropine: Low-dose atropine eyedrops can significantly slow the progression of myopia and prevent severe vision problems. The eye drops are administered right before bedtime, then your child continues to wear their glasses or contact lenses during the day. The team at Bronx Eye Associates encourages early treatment with atropine because the sooner your child starts on treatment, the less nearsighted they’ll become.
• Multifocal Contact Lenses: Soft multifocal contact lenses correct nearsightedness and slow its progression. Studies show that children wearing multifocal contacts may have 25% less myopia progression and 31% less eye elongation compared with children wearing single-vision lenses. Your doctor at Bronx Eye Associates may recommend that your child wear the contacts for at least five to seven hours daily to achieve the best long-term results. Although bifocal glasses may help slow myopia progression, they have a minimal effect.
• Orthokeratology: Orthokeratology refers to wearing specially designed contact lenses at night. While your child sleeps, the contacts gently reshape their cornea. In the morning, the contacts are removed, yet your child can see clearly throughout the day. Wearing these lenses every night also helps slow myopia progression.

If your child is diagnosed with myopia, call Bronx Eye Associates or book an appointment online to get help with myopia control.